System and method for a reactive and personalized exposure of mobile end-user context to a third party

ABSTRACT

A system and method for a reactive and personalized exposure of user context to a third party comprises information sources, a context discovery module providing the user context based on the information sources, an identification module obtaining an identity of the third party, a personalization engine, and a rendering system rendering and forwarding a reply to the third party, wherein if the identification module obtains the identity, the personalization engine creates a personalized message in accordance with the user context and the identity and the reply is the personalized message, and if the identification module does not find the identity, the reply is a generic message. The context discovery module and the identification module can each comprise an inferencing engine. The inferencing engine can be associated with a policy engine. Policy engines can be associated with each module and/or engine. The personalization engine can comprise a database of special messages.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication 61/083,285 filed Jul. 24, 2008, the entire contents anddisclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference as if fully setforth herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to mobile end-user contextreceived from and provided to a third party.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There is a profound shift in the way people communicate in “always on”or “always connected” environments where the expectation is that emailsand instant messages, as well as the traditional voice call, reach therecipient virtually instantly and are perhaps responded to instantly.Additionally, with the strong market penetration of social networkingapplications, the sense and expectation that others are visible andaccessible at all times becomes pervasive. In such environments, theneed arises for an increased level of transparency in communication whenappropriate. Given this expectation, the need arises for users to havethe flexibility to dynamically tailor the automatic response that theircommunication devices provide to the context that they are in and to thelevel of privacy they want to protect.

Today technologies such answering machines and automatic email responsesgive a caller or email sender some general sense of the whereabouts ofthe machine's user. In the case of an unanswered phone call, ananswering machine can let the caller know that the user is away from thephone or on another call. In addition, the machine can, if the user isaway for a prolonged period of time, let the caller know when to expectthe user back, and, if desired, an alternative means of reaching him,such as a cell phone number. The answering machine provides a way tostore a short message containing any information provided by the userand this information will reach anyone that calls, indiscriminately. Inthe case of an automatic email response, the situation is similar.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and a system that allow a user to dynamically tailor anautomatic response to an attempt to contact him, and to control how muchof his current context is revealed to the person attempting to contacthim, is presented. The inventive system and method reacts to a receivedcommunication in a fashion that is personalized to the person sendingthe communication and contains selective context (including location andcalendar information) and time sensitive information. Dynamicallypersonalized responses as well as appropriate context information areautomatically provided to the contacting party.

The inventive system and method for a reactive and personalized exposureof user context to a third party comprises information sources, acontext discovery module providing the user context based on theinformation sources, an identification module obtaining an identity ofthe third party, a personalization engine, and a rendering systemrendering and forwarding a reply to the third party, wherein if theidentification module obtains the identity, the personalization enginecreates a personalized message in accordance with the user context andthe identity and the reply forwarded to the third party is thepersonalized message, and if the identification module does not find theidentity of the third party, the reply is a generic message. The contextdiscovery module and the identification module can each have aninferencing engine. Each inferencing engine can be associated with apolicy engine. Policy engines can be associated with each module and/orengine. The personalization engine can have a database of specialmessages. The inventive method is initiated by the third party. Theidentity of the third party can comprise a name, a priority, and acategory. The personalized message can comprise user whereabouts, whenuser will be available, and a specialized message.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is further described in the detailed description thatfollows, by reference to the noted drawings by way of non-limitingillustrative embodiments of the invention, in which like referencenumerals represent similar parts throughout the drawings. As should beunderstood, however, the invention is not limited to the precisearrangements and instrumentalities shown. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the inventive system;

FIG. 2 is an overview of an embodiment of the inventive system; and

FIG. 3 is flow diagram of the inventive method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventive system and method reacts to a received communication witha response that is personalized to the person sending the communicationand contains selective context (including location and calendarinformation) and time sensitive information. The initial communicationthat the user may receive can include a phone call (wireless, wireline,over the internet), an email, a sms, instant message, and/or twittermessage. The invention automatically identifies or classifies, e.g.,categorizes, the person attempting to communicate with the user, e.g.,the communication initiator, and then creates a customized responsebased on that categorization in accordance with predefined policies. Thecategory, e.g., spouse, child, parent, employer, supervisor, co-worker,business associate, etc., in conjunction with the policies associatedwith the classification or category, provides a way to automaticallycontrol the amount of information the user reveals about his presentcontext, and hence protects his privacy, while at the same time ensuresthat people who need to know get the appropriate information about theuser's whereabouts and plans.

Users of the inventive system can have various levels of context, suchas a level of “I cannot get to the phone right now” or “I am at thedentist right now”, as well as another level of “I will be in the officeat 10 am today” or “I am driving for the next two hours”. An additionallevel can be available, such as who the caller can call for assistanceor a pre-recorded message that is meant only for this particular caller.More and/or different levels can also exist.

For example, if a supervisor sends the user an email while the user isdriving to the office in the morning, and the user receives the email onhis Blackberry and reads it but cannot respond, he can allow theinventive system to send an automatic response to the supervisorindicating that the email was read and that the user is on his way tothe office, with estimated arrival time of 30 minutes. In anotherexample, if the user receives an email from a co-worker but does notread it, no response will be generated.

In yet another example, if the user's mother calls while the user is ina meeting, the user can enable the system to supply a voice message totell her mother, perhaps even in Hebrew, that the user is in a meeting.The user could include information indicating what the meeting is aboutand with whom, so that her mother does not get offended that the userdoes not answer her mother's call.

In still another example, if the user gets a call from a businessassociate, the user may want a generic message such as one asking thatthe associate send the user an email. However, if the user knows why theassociate is calling, the user may specify in advance what to tell theassociate, such as what time the user will be in the office, etc.

The user of the service can access and/or operate the service on anycommunication device on which he is contacted; the system is notspecific to one of his or her phones or laptops. The system may resideon a user's computer, on his mobile phone or anywhere else in the cloud,in the phone network, e.g., at the Service Control Point (SCP), or inany third party server or any combination of these locations. The systemcan be delivered over the internet or over the phone network or usingany other available communications network.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the inventive system. As shown in FIG.1, the system comprises information sources 10 to determine currentcontext of the message/call receiver or system user. Determining thecurrent context of the user entails looking at one or all of thefollowing information sources: the user calendar, to-do list, currentlocation information as provided by a GPS service or other services,social network information, and/or time of day. Other sources may alsobe used, if appropriate. If the user is driving, a navigation system orGPS service, for example, can provide information related to the userspeed and when he is expected to reach his destination. The informationsources 10 may reside on the user's computer and various socialnetworks, on his mobile phone, or any cloud or third party server, orany combination of these devices and/or locations, and can be accessedvia the internet, the phone network or any other communication networkavailable.

The system also comprises a context discovery module 12. The informationsources 10 may provide both generic information about the user context,e.g. is geo coordinated, or more semantically rich information, e.g.,“he is at home”. If the information does not carry sufficient semanticmeaning, the context discovery module 12 can add as much of the missinginformation as it can infer. For example, in the case of locations, thecontext discovery module 12 can label places as: “home”, “office”,“car”, “train”, “coffee shop”, “park”, “conference room”, etc. Oneembodiment focuses mostly on the mobile scenario which offers a richcontext. The various contexts are organized in context hierarchies asdescribed below.

Given the information provided by the one or more information sources10, the context discovery module 12 can infer, using an inferencingmechanism 14, the whereabouts of the user, that is, whether the user isin the car driving, in the office, at home, in a meeting, at a doctor'soffice, etc. The inferencing mechanism 14 has its own associated policyengine 16 with rules and/or policies associated with the inferences,e.g., context information, to be determined. This inferencing mechanism14 can derive the context information in a variety of ways including thefollowing.

One way is from the user profile that was originally specified by theuser as part of the initial registration to the service where hecompleted a form with his home address, place of work and perhaps otheraddresses he frequents such as the dentist, doctor, child's school, etc.

Another way the context discovery module 12 can derive the informationis using the user calendar and/or to do list and correlating data fromthese lists with the user's whereabouts, from a GPS for example, so thatif the calendar specifies a dentist appointment at 9 am, the contextdiscovery module 12 can use the inferencing module 14 to infer that theGPS coordinates of the user at that time are associated with thatparticular appointment.

Yet another way the module 12 can infer is by applying machine learningtechniques to look at the pattern of behavior of the user and assess andcorrelate his most frequent places of visit. Alternatively, instead ofusing the inferencing mechanism 14, the user of the system canexplicitly inform the system of his or her whereabouts, enabling moreaccuracy in the automatically generated response.

The system also comprises a sender/caller or communication initiatoridentification module 18. This module also includes an inferencingmechanism 20 having various inferencing capabilities based oninformation about the user, the communication initiator, the nature oftheir relationship, the history of the relationship, user calendarinformation, user location and various task oriented information such asto-do lists. The inferencing mechanism 20 has its own associated policyengine 22 with rules and/or policies associated with the inferences,e.g., communication initiator identification, to be determined.

The caller ID, email, and other caller identifications are used by theidentification module 18 to look up any information available to thesystem about the caller. This information can include: a personalcontact list with additional attributes to signify or categorize thecaller such as “important customer”, “my mother”, “my boss”, etc., andsocial networking type information that can be automatically gatheredand stored about people on demand. For example, if the user specifies ontwitter and/or face book that he is boarding a plane, the system canobtain this information and inform a communication initiator of thisinformation, provided that he or she is allowed access to this level ofinformation, as discussed below. Policies associated with eachcommunication initiator can include what permission or level of privateinformation each is entitled to receive. As discussed below, each pieceof context information has a privacy level associated with it and onlypeople that are permitted to obtain information at a given level willreceive the piece of information having that level.

Examples of inferencing capabilities, that is, guessing who the calleris based on available information, of the communication initiator module18 using its inferencing mechanism 20 along with the policy engine 22include the following. In the case of a phone call, when the caller IDindicates that the call is from a company without showing the actualidentity of the caller (which is often the case when dialing from anoffice phone in a large company), the module inference engine 20 cancheck the calendar to see if a call from an individual from that companyis expected and then identify him/her. If a call is expected from thatcompany, e.g., an insurance company, without reference to an individual,it will be identified as such, otherwise if there is no entry on thecalendar, the user contact list can be consulted to see if he knowsanyone from that company, and if so, the module can check if the usercommunicated with this individual recently to assess the probabilitythat it is this individual who is calling.

If the caller ID is “unknown”, this may be an international call. If theuser has family or contacts abroad, an inference is made that it may beone of them calling. If the caller ID is “Private” then the call istreated as unsolicited.

In the case of an email, the email address may or may not indicate aname. If the name is shown and is in the user contact list, the emailsender is identified as a known contact. If the name is not in thecontact list and is not expected, as indicated by the to-do list orcorrespondence within the last few days, the communication is identifiedas “unsolicited”.

The system also comprises a message personalization engine 24. Thestructure of the message to be exposed to the caller/sender has threeparts as described below. Various policies and/or rules, residing in apolicy or rules engine 26, can be used by the system to react to eachtype of communication. The policies relevant to the personalizedmessages are executed by the policy engine or rules engine 26 that ispart of the message personalization engine 24.

These policies and/or rules can be established by the user through amenu on a website or the phone when the system is initiated and can bemodified any time after that.

Using the policies that are executed by the policy engine or rulesengine 26, the system picks the relevant usage of detail that revealsonly that part of the context information that the user wants to reveal,given the information collected about the caller by the communicationinitiation module 18 and the context by the context discovery module 12.

The system also comprises a message rendering system 28 that includescreating a personalized message as discussed below. Based on the user'spreference and mode of communication, e.g., email, telephone, etc., themessage rendering system 28 will play or display the personalizedmessage including speak synthesis, personalized recording, multiplelanguages, etc.

The personalized messages are constructed in real time, that is,dynamically constructed by the message rendering system 28, and thesepersonalized messages can have one or more of three optional parts asfollows. The first part can be user whereabouts at various levels ofgranularity, including when he can see/hear the message. The second partcan reveal when the user will be available, based on current and futurecontext. The third part can be a specialized message in accordance withthe context and the caller. Each part is discussed further below.

The user whereabouts part can be based on time of day, location, and/oron calendar appointment. In one embodiment, the default is: “the user isnot available to respond night now”. For users that have permission,that is, the appropriate privacy level, the personalized message can bemore detailed. It could say “the user is in a meeting with his bossright now”. The level of exposure is determined by the callerrelationship to the user, e.g., caller category, the context hierarchy,described below, and the policies with respect to the policy or rulesengine 26.

In this part of the personalized message, the user can also allow thecaller/sender or communication initiator to know when his originalmessage will be seen/heard. For example, in the case ofreceiving/reading email during a meeting, the response may indicate thatthe user read the email but he cannot respond at this time and willrespond at a later time. Further, if the sender is entitled to know,that is, has permission, the personalized message may, for example,specify that the user will be done with his meeting in an hour and willrespond then. As part of the second part of the message, discussedbelow, the specific time may be determined by a policy.

The second part of the message, when the user will be available, can beas follows. Based on the user calendar and other context informationavailable from the context discovery module 12, the system can exposethe information about when the user will be available. Whether or notthis information is revealed in the message depends on the policiesassociated with the user. Information, such estimated time of arrival ata destination from which a response can be made, can be obtained by thesystem from personal navigation systems or can be computed if the systemhas location, speed and route information available. In cases where thesystem cannot estimate when the user will be available, or when thecaller/sender does not have permission to know this information, ageneric message can be provided saying that the user is not availableand will reply as soon as possible.

A third part of the personalized message can be a specialized message orportion. This part can be indexed under the caller/sender name or underthe type or category of caller/sender, e.g., customer, colleague, closefamily, etc.

In order to support a wide range of policies for the personalization ofthe message, the inventive system organizes the user context in acontext hierarchy that captures its various privacy attributes rangingfrom very private to public. This context hierarchy enables the user tospecify a range of contexts with attributes such as private,semi-private and public, or to provide a numeric scale for how private acontext attribute is or to otherwise rank various context attributes.For example, being away on business can be labeled as “1” or public andmay be disclosed, via a policy, to anyone calling and/or emailing, whilegoing to the doctor can be labeled as “5” or private, and could only bedisclosed, via a policy, to a small group of people.

In order to enable the message personalization engine 24 to create amessage with the appropriate level of detail for the specificcaller/sender, policies need to be applied to which information can beexposed to that specific caller/sender. If no specific policy isavailable, that is, if this specific caller/sender is not known to theuser or is not sufficiently known to have specific policies associatedwith his name, then a default, generally public policy can be applied.The policies can be applied to a particular caller/sender, e.g., “myboss”, such as: “If the caller/sender is my boss do not specify mylocation but only specify when I will be able to call him back and whenI am expected back in the office”.

The policies can also be applied regarding a specific caller category ortype, e.g., “a customer”, such as “If a customer calls, tell him when Iwill be in the office and also ask him to leave a message on my officephone”.

In addition, the policies can specify how to handle a specific context,such as “Do not let anyone know I am at the Doctor's office. Say I amunavailable”. The policies can also specify time of day or day of theweek or seasonal, such as “if anyone contacts me between 2-4 pm, say Iwill be available at 4:30”, or “Say “Merry Christmas” at the end of themessage if the current date is between December 20^(th) and 25^(th)”.

Since the message may have three optional parts, each part of themessage has its own associated policies, namely, as discussed above,there are policies that specify how much of the context to reveal to thecaller/sender in the “whereabouts” part, whether to tell thecaller/sender when the user is available or when he will call back inthe second part of the message, and whether to add a pre-specifiedportion in the third part of the message.

These personalized messages can access a database of specializedmessages 30. At times, the user may want to specify messages to bedelivered to a particular caller/sender or caller/sender type. This canbe done using predefined messages associated with the caller/senders.Accordingly, the database of special messages 30 stores completemessages that the user pre-records by himself to be played to specificpeople or groups or categories of people. For example, the user canleave a message for person X that will be played in its entirety to Xwhen he calls. These messages can also be addressed to group; forexample the user can pre-record a message that will be played only tomember of his family if he or she calls, or to people from his office,etc.

For example, a special message can be associated with communicationinitiator John Smith as “If John Smith calls today before 11 am tell him‘I am out of town until Tuesday’”. Similarly, a special message can bepre-recorded and implemented as “If any colleague emails me in the next3 days, say “I am out of town on business”, and if anyone else emails meduring this period do not respond. The special messages are stored inthe database 30 and are indexed by the time of day that they are activeand by the called/sender name and/or type that they are associated with.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the context discovery module 12 andthe communication initiator ID module 18 each have their own inferencingmechanism, 14, 20, respectively, which can be implemented as differentinstances of the software. In other embodiments, each module in thesystem can have its own inferencing mechanism, implemented as either thesame software with different inputs or as different instances of thesame software. Similarly, each inference engine function 14, 20 is shownin FIG. 1 as having its own associated policy engine 16, 22,respectively, that is, rules and/or policies that address the twodomains/modules, that is, the communication initiator ID module 18 andthe context discovery module 12, and the message personalization engine24 also has its own policy engine 26. In other embodiments, a policyengine 16, 22, 26 implemented as either the same software with differentinputs or as different instances of the same software can be used.

FIG. 2 is an overview of the inventive system, including a caller orcommunication initiator, a service user or user and some elements of theinventive system. Arrow 1 of FIG. 2 shows that the caller initiatescontact, creating an incoming communication, such as a telephone call,an email, an sms, etc., to an end user device 32 such as laptopcomputer, cell phone, or other device. Arrow 2 shows that the contact isrelayed to the inventive system which can be distributed between the enduser device 32 and a server (not shown). Arrow 3 shows that an automaticmessage is sent from the system to the caller or communicationinitiator. The Identity of the Caller can include a name 34, a priority36, and a category 38 for the caller.

Operation of the inventive system is shown in accordance with the flowdiagram of FIG. 3. In step S1, a communication initiator, such as acaller and/or a sender of a message, contacts the user via email, phonecall (wireless or wireline, internet or telephony), sms, twitter, etc.The call/message could be reaching the user's computer, his cell phoneor any other communications device.

In step S2, the system examines various information sources 10 to findout the relevant caller/sender identity and attributes. As discussedabove, the identity and attributes are determined in accordance with thecaller id, if available, the email address, the contact list, etc. Notethat the contact list may have information at various levels of detaildepending on the relationship of the caller/sender with the user. Theinformation obtained from the information sources 10 may also includeinstructions on how to treat the person initiating the communication(e.g., if is my mother, answer in Hebrew).

In step S3, the user context can be established by the context discoverymodule 12. This step can occur after step S2, or possibly in parallelwith it, or sometimes in advance of step S2, such as when the usercontext is needed for other applications and may be readily available tothe context discovery module 12. Note that the underlying platform onwhich this system is running may be keeping track of portions of theuser context continuously for other reasons, e.g., other applicationsthat it supports such as a personalized navigation application. If theuser context is partially or fully available from the platform, then theinventive system will use this user context and may need to augment itwith additional specialized information, for example, was the userexpecting a communication from the communication initiator.

Step S4 determines a need for a personalized response. If thecommunication was anticipated and there are instructions on how tohandle it which are stored under the caller/sender name or under thetype associated with this caller (S4=YES), a personalized message isconstructed in step S5, using the personalized message engine 24 thatemploys the user and the context attributes from the context discoverymodule 12 and applies the appropriate policies as well as checks for anyspecial messages that are needed. As indicated above, the personalizedmessage is composed of three parts, each of which is constructed usingthe appropriate policies.

When the user/sender is completely unknown (S4=NO), a generic messagesaying “please leave a message” will be applied to a voice call and noresponse will be given to an email or sms. After construction, themessage is sent to the message rendering engine 28 in step S5.

The message rendering engine 28 sends a response to the communicationinitiator in the appropriate modality and format (email, sms, voice) instep S6.

One example, or use case, of the inventive system is when an importantcall is anticipated while the user is driving and on a conference call.In this scenario, the user is engaged in an important call while drivingto his office, and his boss calls. Given the pre-define policiesassociated with the three message parts as they relate to the boss, thesystem composes a message telling the boss that the user is driving tothe office, is on a call with person X and is estimated to arrive at theoffice in an hour. If the user pre-specified a special message for hisboss, it will be included as well. To provide the ability for richpersonalization, the inventive system and method consults with theuser's pre-set preferences as well as checks to see if there is anyspecialized message that the user recorded in advance. This scenarioillustrates the increase in effectiveness of the system to handle callswhile the user is busy, and the ability to personalize how much of theuser context is revealed to the caller and to play a pre-recordedmessage if needed.

A second example of the inventive system is the scenario in which a useris at a doctor's office and receives a call. In this scenario, the useris at the doctor's office and a colleague calls. The user would like thecolleague to know only that he will be in the office at noon but doesnot want to reveal the user's full context, that is, being at a doctor'soffice. In this case, the system knows the full context and has a policythat says not to reveal any healthcare related information or anyinformation labeled as private to colleagues at work unless specifiedotherwise for the particular individuals. So using the contexthierarchy, the system reveals the less private level of informationwhich entails replying that the user is not available right now and whenhe will be available. On the other hand, if the user's mother calls, theuser would like to reveal the full context and also mention that he willcall her back when he is free.

Various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a program,software, or computer instructions embodied in a computer or machineusable or readable medium, which causes the computer or machine toperform the steps of the method when executed on the computer,processor, and/or machine. A program storage device readable by amachine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by themachine to perform various functionalities and methods described in thepresent disclosure is also provided.

The system and method of the present disclosure may be implemented andrun on a general-purpose computer or special-purpose computer system.The computer system may be any type of known or will be known systemsand may typically include a processor, memory device, a storage device,input/output devices, internal buses, and/or a communications interfacefor communicating with other computer systems in conjunction withcommunication hardware and software, etc.

The terms “computer system” and “computer network” as may be used in thepresent application may include a variety of combinations of fixedand/or portable computer hardware, software, peripherals, and storagedevices. The computer system may include a plurality of individualcomponents that are networked or otherwise linked to performcollaboratively, or may include one or more stand-alone components. Thehardware and software components of the computer system of the presentapplication may include and may be included within fixed and portabledevices such as desktop, laptop, and server. A module may be a componentof a device, software, program, or system that implements some“functionality”, which can be embodied as software, hardware, firmware,electronic circuitry, or etc.

The embodiments described above are illustrative examples and it shouldnot be construed that the present invention is limited to theseparticular embodiments. Thus, various changes and modifications may beeffected by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for a reactive and personalized exposureof user context to a third party, comprising: a processor one or moreinformation sources; a context discovery module comprising at least aninferencing engine providing the user context based on one or more ofsaid one or more information sources, and organizing user context in acontext hierarchy according to a privacy level; an identification moduleconnected with at least a policy engine obtaining the identity of thethird party, said policy engine comprises the level of privacyassociated with each piece of user context information; apersonalization engine creating a personalized message in accordancewith the user context and the identity of the third party; and arendering system rendering and forwarding a reply to the third party,wherein the reply includes one of the personalized message, comprising apart of the user context, and a generic message.
 2. The system accordingto claim 1, said identification module comprising at least aninferencing engine.
 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein saidinferencing engine is associated with a policy engine.
 4. The systemaccording to claim 1, said context discovery module, said identificationmodule, and said personalization engine each associated with a policyengine.
 5. The system according to claim 1, said personalization enginecomprising at least a database of special messages.
 6. The systemaccording to claim 1, said identity of the third party comprising aname, a priority, and a category.
 7. The system according to claim 1,said personalized message comprising user whereabouts, when user will beavailable, and a specialized message.
 8. A system for a reactive andpersonalized exposure of user context to a third party, comprising: aprocessor one or more information sources; a context discovery modulecomprising at least an inferencing engine providing the user contextbased on one or more of said one or more information sources, andorganizing user context in a context hierarchy according to a privacylevel associated with each piece of user context information; anidentification module connected to at least a policy engine searchingfor an identity of the third party, said policy engine comprises thelevel of privacy associated with each piece of user context information;a personalization engine; and a rendering system rendering andforwarding a reply to the third party, wherein if the identificationmodule finds the identity, the personalization engine creates apersonalized message in accordance with the user context and theidentity of the third party and the reply is the personalized message,and if the identification module does not find the identity, the replyis a generic message.
 9. A method for a reactive and personalizedexposure of user context to a third party, comprising: initiatingcontact by the third party; obtaining the user context based on one ormore information sources, said obtaining the user context comprisinginferring using an inferencing engine and organizing user context in acontext hierarchy according to a privacy level; searching for anidentity of the third party, and if searching finds the identify,creating a personalized message in accordance with the user context andthe identity of the third party said searching comprising inferringusing an inference engine connected with a policy engine comprises thelevel of privacy associated with each piece of user context information;and rendering and forwarding a reply to the third party, wherein ifsearching finds the identity, the reply is the personalized message, andif searching does not find the identity, the reply is a generic message.10. The method according to claim 9, said steps of obtaining searchingand rendering each using a policy engine.
 11. The method according toclaim 9, said step of rendering using at least a database of specialmessages.
 12. The method according to claim 9, wherein said identity ofthe third party comprises a name, a priority, and a category.
 13. Themethod according to claim 9, wherein said personalized message comprisesuser whereabouts, when user will be available, and a specializedmessage.
 14. A non-transitory computer readable storage device havingcomputer readable program for operating on a computer for a reactive andpersonalized exposure of user context to a third party, comprising:initiating contact by the third party; obtaining the user context basedon one or more information sources, said obtaining the user contextcomprising inferring using an inferencing engine and organizing usercontext in a context hierarchy according to a privacy level; searchingfor an identity of the third party, and if searching finds the identify,creating a personalized message in accordance with the user context andthe identity of the third party said searching comprising inferringusing an inference engine connected with a policy engine comprises thelevel of privacy associated with each piece of user context information;and rendering and forwarding a reply to the third party, wherein ifsearching finds the identity, the reply is the personalized message, andif searching does not find the identity, the reply is a generic message.